Cream Stout
Hale's Ales Brewery & Pub

 

Roasted, but not burnt. Smooth, but like water - not cream. There is a faint hops appearance at the end, but they seem to have forgotten their lines and quickly fade. This beer is an almost perfectly generic, shruggable stout, expect that it suffers from being too thin, the sort of thinness you'd expect from a novice homebrewer but not from an established microbrewery.

Had on tap at VQ in Portland. Instantly noticed the jet black appearance. Bananas actually came to mind on the nose. Not a typical stout in any way, but that's why I loved it.. Tasted of chocolate and coffee, but the banana flavor kept coming back. Extremely creamy and sweet. Would pair well with a dessert. In all honesty, shouldn't have been labeled a stout, but appearance still stays true to stout form.

Will definitely return for another... Or 5. One of my new favorites.. And I live in freaking Portland.

I didn't like the taste, or the mouth feel, it felt a bit slimy to me. On the plus side at least the beer was smooth drinking, and I only ordered a 10oz so I didn't have to drink too much of it. Other than that, I would probably stay away from it in the future.

Hale's pub features three regular nitro-beers including this Cream Stout, which may or may not be the same as their Dublin Stout. Regardless, the key word here is "weak." Sure, the style is delicate and nitro has been known to mask things like aroma and body. But a dry stout (and this is more dry than cream) should still project an affirmed subtlety if nothing else, and it's just not here. Nor is there enough sweetness or body to justify the "cream" descriptive.

Who was it - Jackie Onassis? - who said you can never be too rich or too thin? Well this beer is too thin. And it's a far cry from rich. It momentarily sports a breezy vanilla aroma that's appealing if perhaps misplaced. And the plush, nitro-charged head sits elegantly like a fat beige pillow. But the dilute chocolate flavor fails to inspire and the body is watery and frail. The yawn-inducing taste is timid beyond reason and I kept asking myself if I really wanted to finish a whole pint.

Not a taste, but an echo of a taste steering one's attentions to the threshold of indifference.